totally lived up to it's reputation as one of the best this year! This was my first Lonergan experience, he reminds me of Haneke in a lot of ways, mostly in how deliberately everything is framed and cut. Also, that quality of letting the story slowly reveal itself to the audience instead of each character being a mouthpiece for it. It's the most a movie has wedged itself into my memory since 'The Master', only this one I don't think I'll need to see as much because there isn't any 'code' in it to figure out, only deeper revelations about why the characters act how they do. It's one of the most subtly told movies about loss I've ever seen, I knew I'd be in for some heart wrenching stuff but didn't expect it to be presented like it was in it's backwards, roundabout fashion. I think I can echo the words of samsong, this is pretty undeniably great.

Realist movies are usually not my thing, and this is not always an easy watch, but I think it mostly accomplished what it was going for.

Spoilers...

The first half is perfect. And the reveal knocked my socks off. One of the most powerful things I've seen in a while.

I'm not sold on the second part, though. After a while it felt like the movie was running out of things to say.

(I also have a pet peeve about movies showing characters not only driving, but parking their cars, getting out of their cars, getting back in their cars, etc.)

When Patrick said he had two girlfriends, I was sure it was a joke and couldn't actually be in this movie. But it sure was. Was it supposed to be cute and endearing? At that point I mostly stopped caring what happened to him.

When Patrick said he had two girlfriends, I was sure it was a joke and couldn't actually be in this movie. But it sure was. Was it supposed to be cute and endearing? At that point I mostly stopped caring what happened to him.

I'm glad you bring this up, I feel like less of a prude for thinking the same. When he asks if his girlfriend can sleep over, you're like "aww, he's sexually active! That's cute." Then you hear he's working on this other girl too and it's like "What, am I supposed to believe this kid's some sort of player now? Fuck him." Those two characters seem to be filling the role of the absence of females and family in Lee's life. He'll do anything for his nephew, but these girls on the outskirts, not so sure about them. The death of his brother gives him this renewed opportunity to play the part of a father figure at the exact point in this kid's life when he starts thinking he's a grown man. He probably even kind of hated his Dad for all the rules and demands he put on him. Above all, I like the messiness of this film and that there's never this crystal clear resolution or cliche'd bonding moment, but you do feel Lee's heart is starting to thaw and maybe he's ready to be around other people again.

Good points. I think we are supposed to identify more with Lee. We probably aren't supposed to think Patrick is horrible, though. When he finally sleeps with the second girl, we see him grinning, it's part of a "things are getting better" montage, and I genuinely think it is supposed to be cute. A "boys will be boys" kind of thing that is perhaps intended as a regionalism. But it's actually a weird discordant note that doesn't work.

And it strains credulity that the girls don't know about each other. They are even at the funeral together, where Patrick is sitting with girlfriend #1. How did he introduce them to each other? "This is my girlfr... I mean friend..."

The issue is not that he's having sex with multiple girls. Fine if that's your thing and they both know about it. The problem is that to carry this out in secret he has to operate as a pathological liar and is constantly betraying both of them.

He's in a long-term relationship with girl #1. She goes out of her way to be emotionally supportive and even protective of him, so she clearly believes it's serious. How can that not end in catastrophic heartbreak? Can't even attribute Patrick's behavior to coping with his dad's death, because he had been pursuing girl #2 before that.

I might even tell myself to lighten up, but this is a realist film in which we are definitely meant to take the characters seriously, internalizing their relationships and behavior. I would be interested in an interpretation that responds to my complaints.